Make The Layouts Rough And The Ideas Fancy. A short article by Stavros Cosmopulos
by Stavros Cosmopulos
Make The Layouts Rough And The Ideas Fancy.
How many times have you seen advertising agencies present ideas for print ads, TV
commercials, even entire campaigns, where the beauty of the layouts and storyboards exceeds the beauty of the ideas being presented?
They serenade you with crisp, comprehensive layouts, the typefaces were selected
after a lot of conferences and consultations about the style and its supposed subliminal communicative meaning, spectacular colour illustrations and photographs are neatly mounted on foamcore. The corners have even been rounded. Elaborate storyboards are dazzling in their execution. Each panel is a work of art. The story flows smoothly and beautifully from panel to panel. There are heads and hands and action lines sticking out of the frames. Everyone can tell that the actors cast, the setting and the props are demographically perfect. There are no ambiguities here. Nothing is left to chance or misunderstanding; even the freckles on the redheaded little boy are indicated. Everything’s there. Except for one thing.
An idea. There is none.
Someone is droning on, reciting the copy. An obsequious Account Executive inter-
jects that the client’s name or product is seen and mentioned 14 times, twice in the first five seconds. Eventually it becomes evident that the entire production is a fraud, as well as an exercise in abominable judgment. Thinking that clients are dumb is bad enough, but thinking that they can’t tell the difference between hollow beauty and a substantive idea is just plain stupid.
All those hours and dollars spent is like putting makeup on a corpse. You can make it
look pretty, but the body is still dead.
I’d rather spend most of my time and a lot of sweat working on the idea. The con-
cept. Once you’ve done the research, and gathered up as much marketing and demographic data as possible, you should start reducing the mountain of data down to a manageable amount of information. Once you’ve established a direction, then and only then should the creative team begin the final distillation of information down, hopefully, to one single, salient point. You might call it “concentrated communications dynamics.”
one more page...
Make the layout rough and the ideas fancy, 2
My point is a very simple one: it is easier to penetrate your audience with one sharp,
clean point or idea than with a maze of half-baked, unremarkable, uninspiring ideas that will never motivate or be remembered. Assuming, of course, someone bothered to read them in the first place. Some people think that we can be saved by the wild and wonderful technological age in which we live. It’s like falling in love with a robot. It looks like it can think, but can it create? Picking the right media or using the latest, most expensive laser colour zapper on earth can’t make a print ad better. Prettier and faster? Yes. You might even notice it a little more. You also might notice it doesn’t say anything a little more.
Pity the poor production company. They showed you their reel done by their vaunted and
award-winning directors, cameramen and editors. They’re the ones who are expected to transform some piece of crap into a thing of beauty that works and sells through the sheer magic of camera angles, the latest computer graphics, pulsating lights - you name it. Thirty seconds of electronic pyrotechnics can make any client’s name, logo and product look clean, crisp and contemporary, but it can’t communicate a message when one doesn’t exist in the first place.
The idea should be king.
I’ve seen stick figures scribbled on wet lunchroom napkins so blurred you could barely
discern what was represented. But an idea was there, and it had a life of its own. The words and pictures spring to life in your mind, stimulated and inspired by the basic strength and dynamism of the idea.
Just imagine what a super presentation combined with all that fantastic technology could
do a good idea.
Reprinted with permission ©1983 Stavros Cosmopulos.
Stavros was born in Dorcester, MA, and has been a nationally and internationally recognized advertising creative director for more than three decades. He has created and produced award winning, humorous, provacative advertising and graphic designs from television commercials, magazine and print ads to corporate identity programs. His awards include Andys, Hatch, Addys, Clios, One Show and a bronze lion from the Cannes Film Festival. His clients have included: Dexter Shoes, Dodge Automobiles, Dunkin' Donuts "Munchkins", Fenway Franks, Charleston Chews, Spaulding, John Hancock, Liberty Mutual, New England Life, Fleet Bank, Bank of New England, Bank of Boston, Brighams, Data General, Wang, Polaroid and his favorite: the "Me" campaign for the state of Maine tourism. He started his career at an advertising agency in Detroit and moved to New York City, then lived on a 38' yawl in Florida and founded his first agency in Palm Beach. Following creative stints at BBDO and Kenyon & Eckhardt, he founded Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopolous in 1968 in Boston, where he served as chairman of the board and co-creative director. Today that agency has over $250 million in billings.
Reprinted with permission Š1983 Stavros Cosmopulos.